Not only the MotoGP teams and riders worked on innovations during the three days of pre-season testing in Sepang. Michelin, the exclusive tire supplier, also had new solutions to work on, as Piero Taramasso spoke to the press about.
The director of the two-wheel racing division summed up these tests in this way: ‘At the end of the three days, I would say it was a very positive test. The standard allocation we gave to the riders is based on what they used here last season. There is a different compound in the front and a different compound in the rear. We validated those compounds last season in the Misano test and in Valencia. This new technology of compound for the rear tyre is designed to have a better consistency. The one we designed for the front is to make the first step for the 2025 tyre. We decided to do one step on the compound in 2024 and the second step about casing and construction in 2025. This was the running tyre, the one they used all three days to check the new bikes, to do the test, to test different solutions’.
According to Taramasso, there was also a new, harder compound to the front wheel: ‘On top of that, we brought a new front tyre, a new compound called D and we call it also hard plus because it’s a hard compound, a little bit extra harder to compensate the bike that is more and more aggressive to the front end’.
Regarding the main tire for these tests, the Michelin leader explained that he was pleased from the perspective of performance, room for improvement, and consistency: ‘The running tyre was very good, with that tyre all the riders made the lap time and as you can see the lap time was very, very fast. In the last day, ten riders were faster compared to last year’s record. And also comparing with IRTA test they where one second faster. So the performance is there, we see this tyre model isn’t still at the limit because they can push more and more. And also the consistency, that was what we were looking fore, is there. With the soft rear they were able to make 20/25 laps and also the best lap some times is after six, seven or even eight laps’.